This invention relates to a device for laterally positioning a patient during an epidural procedure.
Epidural anesthesia or analgesia is one of the most widely used regional anesthetic procedures employed for surgery, obstetrics, postoperative analgesia, and chronic back pain management. In such epidural procedures, anesthetic or analgesic drugs are delivered to the spinal cord by placing the drugs outside of the membranous sac containing the spinal cord using a syringe.
In a lateral epidural procedure the patient lays on their side on an operating or examination table in the fetal position, i.e., with the knees drawn up toward the chest.
It is often difficult for the patient to remain in the fetal position without movement for the period of time required for the procedure. It is obviously very important that the patient does not move during the procedure as such movement could have adverse consequences.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a device for positioning and immobilizing a patient for a lateral epidural procedure.
The positioning device of the present invention includes a shoulder harness subassembly and a leg saddle subassembly.
The shoulder harness subassembly is adapted to fit over the shoulders of the patient, and includes a chest strap extending downwardly from the front thereof.
The leg saddle subassembly is adapted to fit behind the legs of the patient above the knees, the saddle subassembly having a saddle strap extending upwardly therefrom.
An adjustable strap attachment means is attached to one of the lower end of the chest strap or the upper end of the saddle strap. The adjustable strap attachment means is adapted to adjustably receive the other strap and hold the other strap at a location that restrains the patient in the desired fetal position.